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The caller ID said Rockford Falls Police Department.
Before I could press the call button, my stomach bottomed out. For an instant, for some reason, I thought, Oh God it’s Nicole, there’s been an accident. And just like that I couldn’t even swallow. I coughed out a hello as I answered.
“Noah, you better get down to the community center building site. Look around and see if anything’s amiss. We got an alert from your security system.”
“Why didn’t it go off on my phone?” I asked, “it’s supposed to call my phone if something trips the alarm.”
“I guess that’s a good question for your security company, man. I just got the notification and called you.”
“Thank you. I’ll be right down there,” I groaned.
Whoever was messing with that build site was asking to have their face beat in, as far as I was concerned. Anyone standing in the way of my goal to complete the project deserved whatever they go, as far as I was concerned. I grumbled and cussed as I got dressed and made coffee. I needed to check out what tripped the alarm, but I knew I wasn’t safe to drive yet. I was too sleepy. I was also jittery, nervous, because I had that weird feeling that the call had been about Nicole.
It made zero sense. My half-asleep brain had just conjured up the idea for no reason. Because it wasn’t not like I’d be her emergency contact, for one thing. Nobody at that police station knew we’d been… What had we been doing? Hooking up? Seeing each other? I didn’t have a name for it. So I could guarantee that nobody would notify me if something bad happened to her. Also, she was probably home in her bed, or still at that conference in the city. Far from this headache about the security system. I’d have to call their customer service number in the morning and straighten out who was getting the notifications when the alarm tripped.
There was no reason to worry about her. That woman was long gone, out of my life except for when I had to deal with her at work. Which I didn’t look forward to. I’d never slept with a coworker or a boss before. So it was going to be tricky. I dreaded seeing her. At the same time, part of me was dying to see her. And by ‘see her’ I meant hold her, smell her hair, kiss the top of her head and tell her I missed her. That was the most completely fucked up part about it. I liked her. I probably did more than like her, in fact. There were feelings, ones I wasn’t used to having. Ones I wished would go away.
I shook off those intrusive thoughts and refocused on the project, the only thing worth worrying about for me. I poured my coffee in a travel mug and silently thanked my mom again for that k-cup coffeemaker she’d gotten me last Christmas. That thing worked fast in an emergency. And if there’d ever been a caffeine emergency, this was it. Rousted from my slumber at 2:15AM, not by a beautiful woman who wanted more, but by a security alert. I took a long slug of my coffee, which being straight out of the machine burned the hell out of my mouth and drove to the job site.
Brody was waiting for me, looking as harassed as I felt. “I got the call, and thought I’d check it out in person for you.”
“Thanks, bro. I appreciate it. I know you’re short on sleep already.”
“That I am. I looked around and didn’t see any signs of mischief, but I thought we’d go over it together.”
“All right. Thanks for doing this,” I said, taking the Mag-lite out of my truck and training the big beam on the ground.
Slowly, we worked our way over the area, first the areas surrounding the sensors and cameras, then through the developing structure itself. We went all the way down to the market stalls and the future parking area. I unlocked the equipment storage and surveyed the inventory, which appeared to be undisturbed since we’d quit for the day. There was nothing out of place, not even a tire track or shoe print where there shouldn’t be one.
We stumbled around out there for about an hour, double-checking everything. No vandalism, no signs of foul play or damage. Not even any high school style graffiti. I shook my head with a heavy sigh.
“I guess it was a false alarm. I’m sure sorry about dragging you out of bed,” I said to Brody when we went back to our trucks.
“Could’ve been an animal got too close to the sensors or somebody tripped the alarm accidentally,” Brody suggested.
“Somebody out at two in the morning peeking at a job site that’s half mud?” I asked a little skeptically.
